What He Had Said
by Oedipus Tex
Summary: Their relationship had been going on for some time, but if she would meet the needs of his soul, he would have to say it. Question was, would he say it? One-shot. Rayne.


_**Disclaimer: I claim no rights to Firefly, Serenity, or any of the associated characters or universe. I make no monetary gain from this story.**_

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**What He Had Said**

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"You know what I think. Ain't it enough?"

"No."

They differed on many things, but the thing they differed the most on was the matter of speaking.

"But yer in my head, girl."

"Say it anyway."

He didn't understand her. She couldn't explain it to him. Couldn't explain how she met his needs before he even knew he had them. Met him in little things—drink, food—but she would do more than that. She would meet the needs of his soul.

He had gotten into the habit of not speaking 'less he had to. Knew she'd know what he think. Thought all manner of things to her sitting at the dinner table, just to see her blush or giggle, and then laugh when the others wondered what she was red for.

It started when she one day told him something only he knew. "Get outta my head," he had said. "You first," she replied. It took him a little time to work out what she had meant by that, but once he did, she had been astonished by his intensity.

"You confound me."

She couldn't blame him. She confounded herself. But she wanted him to say it, all the same.

"I won't say it. I won't say it 'cause you're breaking the rules."

"What's the rules?"

"The rules that says that try to keep me alive, girl. I can't just be saying things. Like to get tossed outta the airlock. Why can't we be going on as before?"

Because it was too easy.

"If I am," she said, "to become flesh of your flesh, and bone of your bone, you must say it."

Now it was his turn to blush.

"Gorram, girl, I ain't never had no accounting for that."

Of course not. Not yet.

She looked at him, and he looked at her.

"I'm humped," he said.

"You're humped."

He stood at the call to dinner, his face pale and solid. "I ain't gonna say it."

He went to dinner, and she went too, and they didn't speak. He ate in silence, aiming to keep his thoughts shut from her, burying his face in his bowl. She gave him no release. Her eyes never left his face, and she knew how miserable she was making him. She would have his skin boil.

"Say it."

The rest of the table stopped, turned towards her.

"Did you say something, little one?"

She didn't answer.

Their eyes were on her, but her eyes were on him. His face was still in his bowl, his movements frozen. He looked up; blue eyes hard and cold like ice. Frozen sky.

"Gorramit!"

Then he stood, and said it.

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The room was silent, stunned at what he had said. Of all the words and possibilities and impossibilities in the 'verse, this was the last they would have expected.

They thought he was crazy. Mal said no man had no right drinking moonshine from a planet where they marry their sisters. "I told you it ain't the right kind of alcohol. Like to cause blindness, 'sides...well, saying all manner of loving on people, apparently." Simon had no notion alcohol poisoning could cause such a symptom. Inara and Kaylee giggled like schoolgirls—Zoë too.

Yet for all this, their eyes—his and hers, the only ones that mattered—never left each other. He had said it.

His eyes burned her.

_Zào wù zhŭ_, he boiled her skin. She ached to hear him speak more. And with that way he had of meeting her needs, without even being psychic, he spoke:

"Now _you_ say it."

She pursed her lips. He smirked. The crew looked on, silenced, inkling that there was more going on here than they thought.

She was a brat but...she would meet the needs of his soul.

She breathed out, and said, "Why Jayne Cobb, you know what I think. Ain't it enough?"

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_**A/N: What a brat! I am not a shipper, so I never would have imagined I would have written any sort. I guess if I were to write one, it would be Rayne. It is only vaguely shiply, so perhaps I can forgive myself. There's something about the natural dichotomy between Jayne and River's personalities that intrigues me, whether platonic or not. This being my first foray into shippy fanfic, I'm a bit nervous on whether it made any sense or not. If not, at least it was short.**_

_**Note on the Chinese: it's probably wrong. In fact, I guarantee it's wrong. If it is fact correct, it was an accident.**_


End file.
